The publishing company currently supports 45 BlackBerry users, and Proctor -- joined by several other IT managers -- wants an exemption for all existing customers of RIM's BlackBerry service, an number that has reached nearly 4 million in the U.S.

"Private sector users have the same security and critical operations issues as government workers," said John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass. The medical school supports 500 BlackBerry users, including doctors and medical staff. "Shutting down the RIM network for anyone seems like an extreme measure."

Frank Gillman, director of technology at Allen Matkins LLP, a law firm in Los Angeles, argued that it would be technologically difficult to exempt only government workers, since RIM e-mail runs across dozens of third-party wireless networks that would have to be advised of any shutdown. "How in God's green Earth would they pull that off? I would think the carriers would not be happy about that at all, letting some but not all off the hook."

Gillman said he understands why BlackBerry service might be important to national security personnel. "But I have a much harder time understanding an exemption of heads of various bureaucracies, while those of us in private jobs also working day and night wouldn't be allowed to function in our own business."

One government IT manager defended the potential exemption. In Topeka, Kansas, about 30 BlackBerry devices are used by public safety officials, and have helped reduce the size of the city's command staff, said Mark Biswell, deputy director of information technology. "I believe government agencies should get an exemption based on the use of taxpayer dollars to put the BlackBerry infrastructure in place and the potential costs associated with replacing the technology," Biswell said. "This may not be fair to private companies but we are all taxpayers, so it makes my position easier to justify."